This little outing was almost a complete waste of time. Craig and Graham's Mum had free tickets for a "Dinosaur Exhibition" that sounded good. So, the boys were taken along to see what the fuss was about. There were lots of people waiting at the entrance so a photo was arranged in front of a cardboard cut out while they waited.
Then another photo was taken in front of a dinosaur poster because of crowding around the first robot dinosaur.
And then another photo was taken while waiting for the crowd to clear a bit.
Eventually, the boys got to see a robot dinosaur up close.
It wasn't very exciting and the crowd was not well-behaved.
The place was set up to allow kids to escape the crowds around the robots and have their pictures taken in front of dinosaur posters.
The robot dinosaurs didn't move much and the noises were not very realistic even when you could hear them above the noise made by the staff and other attendees.
This was supposed to be exciting.
Yes, it really says "Dinosaur Boxing".
The robots didn't touch each other during their fight!
After the "boxing" there was nothing else! That was the big finale!!! Immediately after that was a huge undercover area where all kinds of stuff for kids was being sold using some very high-pressure sales techniques. No photos exist of the madness in there. Fortunately, Craig was only subjected to one silly test that ended in an attempt to sell "educational" toys to his parents before an escape was made.
The area outside used to be the Taiwan national soccer stadium. Once upon a time, Craig and Graham's Dad played football here.
After all the excitement in the morning, Craig still had plenty of energy for bicycle riding in the late afternoon.
Just one day after Graham had wandered around in the sun, in a truly amazing turn up, the sun rose brightly the very next day. Craig had another one of his special Saturday classes. He was dropped off early in the morning, so Graham was free to play as much as he liked.
When Graham and Dad went back to pick Craig in the afternoon, up he wasn't very happy. Dad was just about the last parent to arrive and Craig had become very worried. To let him recover a bit, Dad told him to go and play in the yard and the boy soon brightened up.
Graham very quickly attracted a protector. Almost wherever he goes, some female will want to take care of him. This young woman works at the place where Craig's classes are held.
Craig quite likes walking across these bamboo sticks.
Graham wanted to climb up there too but his protector wouldn't allow it.
Then, there was a minor disagreement about who should hold the hose to water the organic garden.
Three's a crowd when there's only one hose.
The mother of the little girl was quite pleased with her daughter standing up for herself and insisting on taking a turn.
Craig didn't stray far. He was back in control of the watering in no time at all.
Meanwhile, Graham had become bored with waiting his turn and climbed inside a wheelbarrow under the watchful eye of a new protector. That prompted Craig to start a new game of wheeling Graham around.
Whenever Craig started to run with the wheelbarrow Graham's new protector would start to get nervous and tell him to slow down.
Eventually, she just had to slow him down by grabbing the handle of the barrow.
If she hadn't, Craig might have tested how fast it could travel across gravel.
In response, Craig started walking backwards.
He kept going backwards up a tiny slope.
It was quite a lot of work.
And he had to put in a lot of effort to get through the long thick grass.
And then, being the caring big brother that he is, he tried to push the wheelbarrow down the slope with his little brother inside!
So the wheelbarrow was put away but Craig wasn't ready to go home. He wanted to play some more.
Some other kids had Angry Birds toys.
One of the tiny green bird toys had become lost in the grass and everyone started looking for it.
The boy in the striped t-shirt was the owner and he was not happy about his toy going missing.
Craig placed a couple of the little green bird toys up on a tree so they wouldn't get lost. The funny thing was that with two adults and four kids searching, it was the youngest one, Graham, that found the toy! He was very pleased with himself.
Craig didn't care. He went back to finding things to climb on.
Craig wanted someone to open the gate and turn it into a big swing.
But no one obliged.
So he went back to the bamboo sticks......
Before joining some other kids up a tree. The boy in the striped t-shirt was first up the tree but he had been ordered down to go and put a jacket on.You can see him here in his orange jacket getting back up the tree as fast as he can.
The kids were all very quick to climb up.
At one stage there was four of them in the tree.
And a number of parents were below taking videos and photos.
While the kids just relaxed and enjoyed the view.
The other kids came down one by one and started heading for home.
Until Craig was the last one left.
Graham was starving hungry.
So the three went for dinner not far away. Craig was given a full adult-sized meal for the first time ever. He didn't finish it but gave it a mighty effort.
There was even time to play in a park after dinner.
Before it was finally time to begin the long train trip home.
